Paris paper fooled by Moscow spoof

Friday 7 April 2000 05.43 EDT
First published on Friday 7 April 2000 05.43 EDT

The authoritative French daily Le Monde was forced to admit yesterday that it had fallen hook, line and sinker for un gros poisson d'avril - a monumental April fool - in publishing what purported to be the first instalment of Boris Yeltsin's eagerly awaited memoirs.

On the front page of its Wednesday edition it carried a report based on what the Russian newspaper Moskovskii Komsomolets claimed on April 1 was an exclusive preview of the ex-president's diaries.

Among the revelations in the piece was Mr Yeltsin's assertion that he had recognised the potential of his successor, Vladimir Putin, when he proved to be a cool shot at a hunting party in 1994.

At the end of the day "everyone gathered round a table in a clearing". "They all dived under it, however, when a wild boar suddenly appeared at the edge of the forest. Two shots rang out, and on examination it proved to be Putin who had shot the beast through the heart."

At that moment, Mr Yeltsin was purported to have continued, "we all raised a glass to the sure arm of Vladimir Vladimirovitch. And I said to myself: Moscow needs such men!"

Le Monde apologised yesterday for failing to spot the joke, explaining that such pranks were "a long and occasionally amusing tradition" in the Russian press, and that the story was "well-crafted, cited some well-known episodes, and written in a style close to Yeltsin's habitual declarations".

Its correspondent added: "As it was, one had to slalom that day between stories announcing the end of mixed sex classes, the marriage of the tennis player Anna Kournikova, the installation of saunas and bars in public housing estates, and the existence of a squadron of robber falcons specially trained to whip the fur hats from Moscovites' heads."

He had waited three days for someone to deny the story, but no one had. "So we present our readers our humble apologies, and promise to wait with more patience and caution for the real presidential memoirs," the paper concluded.